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Fressnapf - the untamed success of the specialist discounter
The behavioural researcher Konrad Lorenz said: "The desire to keep an animal emanates from an ancient basic instinct - namely civilised mankind's yearning for the lost paradise."
In Germany this yearning is considerable as around 23 million house pets live here not counting aquarium fish and reptiles. Not great enough, thinks one man whose business is everything to do with animals.
"Germany ranks third among the animal keeping nations in Europe. Italy, France and Great Britain for example, keep more pets than we do. So Germany still need's to catch up", says Torsten Toeller,
managing director of Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH.
"We are all animal lovers"
But the business, which he founded, has no need whatever to catch up. As a shooting star, Fressnapf is an exception among companies in the retail sector: 16 years after its establishment,
Fressnapf is the undisputed number 1 for pet supplies in Germany and Europe. Steadily climbing turnovers apparently go without saying and with 80 to 100 new shops opening in the year,
the franchise company is striking fear into the hearts of the competition. "One of our success factors is that we orientate ourselves closely to the wishes of our customers and have something in common with them:
we are all animal lovers. This sets us apart from the majority of the competition", explains Torsten Toeller. That sounds like marketing strategy. However, Toeller has a counter argument: he has two dogs in his family,
sheep graze on the grounds of the Fressnapf headquarters in Krefeld - a herd of fallow deer also lives there. "Unusual", think some people, but being "different to all the others" is part of the trademark of Toeller and his company.
"Benchbreaking" rather than benchmarking
Toeller has often tilled virgin soil with his ideas. He doesn't shy away
from controversy with the diverse representatives of the specialist pet shop
sector and this has earned him the reputation of being a forward and lateral
thinker. That doesn't bother the 40 year old, just the opposite. "Whoever
wants to actively mould the market and keep their nose permanently in front
can't travel the well-worn paths but must break the market rules positively
and successfully", says he. At the end of the fiscal year 2006 there were
822 Fressnapf stores in Europe - 625 of them in Germany alone. In 2006
Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH rang up a turnover of 801 million euros
throughout Europe thereby achieving a growth of 11.5 percent over the
previous year. With its German stores, Fressnapf increased turnover to 597
million euros booking a plus of 7.9 percent. Top of the German and Europeans
leagues, the Krefelder trading business occupies third place world-wide -
behind the US American companies PetSmart and PETCO.
From Erkelenz to the top
The "Fressnapf Idea" began to ripen at the end of the 80's when Torsten Toeller returned from a trip to the USA having been inspired by the concept of the American pet superstores. He wanted to establish this style of specialist discounter for animals in Germany too,
but his boss at the time blew the idea out. "No one wants animal food stalls in Germany", was his opinion. So the 24 year old Toeller took the law into his own hands. On the 18 January 1990, he opened the first ever Fressnapf store in Erklenz, Nordrhein-Westfalen.
But all beginnings are known to be difficult - which the young businessman Toeller soon came to notice. To expensive, too little choice, thought the customers of the original Fressnapf. So he sold his car, doubled his range and dropped the prices massively.
Shortly thereafter he had quadrupled the turnover and thus laid the foundation stone for Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH. Henceforth the symbol of Fressnapf has stood for rapid expansion. The company opened the first franchised store in 1992; over the years,
hundreds of new stores have opened their doors in Germany. The first Austrian Fressnapf store went to the starting blocks in 1997, in the years 1998 and 1999 further stores followed in Switzerland and in Luxembourg. In the meantime, pet owners in eleven European countries can purchase their animal food and accessories at Fressnapf.
In countries such as Italy, France, Denmark or Ireland, the Fressnapf stores go by the name of "Maxi Zoo".
Enormous range on a large floor area
Fressnapf stores are different to the good old - dark and dingy - pet shops. Fressnapf means bright, generous aisles, huge choice and favourable discount prices. All Fressnapf stores accordingly have a uniform concept: on a sales floor area of 600 square metres on average,
the specialist retailers offer an assortment of around 10,000 articles in the categories of animal foods and accessories including a large selection of products for dogs, cats, rodents, birds, fish and specialities such as low fat food, light diets, mix-your-own animal food and special food for animals with allergies.
The selection is rounded off by the private label ranges MultiFit, fit+fun, Select Gold and Premiere. These products are sold by trained staff who unlike those in supermarkets or DIY markets, know animals really well and can offer the customers expert advice.
New at Fressnapf is the so-called XXL concept - a kind of adventure store which presents "a piece of wildlife" to the terraristic and aquaristic enthusiasts on an enormous floor area of over 1,200 square metres and turns a visit to XXL Fressnapf into an "animal experience". The first XXL markets have started up in Osnabrueck and Ulm - more will follow.
Fressnapf - a prize winning business
Fressnapf has received several distinctions for its success as a business. In 2003 Torsten Toeller was voted "Entrepreneur of the Year", in 2004 his company was rewarded the prize "Franchiser of the Year". In 2005 Fressnapf was able to add two further prizes to its long list of awards. Thus the company came to win the Oscar of their branch,
the "Goldener Zuckerhut" (Golden Sugar Loaf), the trading sector's highest accolade. The top-class jury based their judgement on the fact that Fressnapf, within 15 years of establishing the company, had seen off the trade specialists as well as the competition from the food trade. Ingrid and Herbert Mueller, Fressnapf franchisees,
have been voted "Franchisee of the Year 2005" by the Publisher for the German Economy. This award recognised the business couple for finding the way to successful self-employment at the side of a strong franchiser. In a study of the 100 most successful franchise systems in Germany in July 2006,
the business magazine "impulse" placed Fressnapf behind McDonald's as the second best franchiser.
Torsten Toeller and his franchisees have a clear aim for the future: to further increase Fressnapf's market share which at the end of 2005 stood at 17.8 percent of the total market and 38.2 percent of the specialist pet retail trade because, as Toeller points out, "we have by no means exhausted our potential".
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Fressnapf Tiernahrungs GmbH